Nearly two out of five married women in South Korea were forced to stop working due to marriage, having children, child education and other family-related obligations, data showed Tuesday.According to the data by Statistics Korea, the number of women who gave up their jobs due to marriage and other family-related reasons came to 1.9 million as of June. That made up 19.3 percent of all married women aged 15-54 here. Of them, 47 percent cited marriage as the major reason why they quit their jobs.

South Korean banks’ short-term overseas borrowing declined in November as Europe‘s debt crisis prompted them to repay foreign debt to brace for the worsening of the turmoil, the financial watchdog said Tuesday.A total of 16 local banks refinanced 95.9 percent of their maturing debt with fresh foreign borrowing last month, down from 108 percent tallied in October, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.A bank’s short-term refinancing rate measures the percentage of its new borrowing again

South Korea’s exports are expected to exceed the $600 billion mark for the first time ever in 2012, thanks mainly to steady demand from developing economies, a local trade organization said Tuesday.The Korea International Trade Association said outbound shipments may reach $600.5 billion with imports hitting $565.5 billion for a trade surplus of $35 billion in the new year compared to a favorable balance of $33 billion estimated for 2011.This translates into the country shipping out an average o

Samsung Card Co. said Monday it has decided to sell a 17 percent stake in its unlisted affiliate Samsung Everland Inc to KCC Corp. for 773.9 billion won (US$674.4 million).Samsung Card said in a regulatory filing that its board has approved a plan to sell 425,000 shares in Samsung Everland, the de f

Korea’s plan to launch discount gas stations hit a fresh snag as the government has again failed to strike a bargain with refiners over the prices of petrol supplies last week. The project was initiated in July as a key mechanism for the government’s battle against sky high fuel prices, and calls for converting about 10 percent of the country’s gas stations, about 1,300 outlets, into discount vendors by 2015.The Korea National Oil Corp. and Nonghyup, a state-funded agricultural bank, aim to cut

Korea’s commercial banks recently saw their credit ratings raised while many big foreign banks suffered downgrades by three global rating agencies.According to the Korea Center for International Finance, six Korean banks recently enjoyed upgraded credit ratings or more positive outlooks from the rating firms.In July, Standard & Poor’s raised its rating of Shinhan Bank and Hana Bank by one notch.In November, Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on three state-run banks ― Industrial Bank of Korea, Ex

Hyundai Group said Monday that it has decided to withdraw bid to participate in the competition to select the country’s fourth telecom project.Hyundai Group’s affiliate Hyundai Ubiquitous and Information Technology said it is withdrawing from the IST consortium, indicating it will take out its investment sum of 35 billion won ($30.4 million).“We were planning to inject about 35 billion won because we believed the fourth telecom project was a promising one for future growth and a plus for the cou

South Korean stocks closed 1.33 percent higher on Monday as investors were emboldened by hopes that a new EU fiscal treaty may help solve the eurozone debt crisis, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark KOSPI gained 25.01 points to 1,899.76. Trading volume was moderate at 404.2 million shares worth 5.28 trillion won ($4.61 billion) with gainers outpacing losers 515 to 293.“European leaders’ agreement on a new fiscal treaty gave some support to the market, bu